1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body weight measuring apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement in such a body weight measuring apparatus, wherein various conditioning data, such as the height, sex, and the like of a person to be measured is adapted to be included in advance, and determination is adapted to be made of the relativity of the measured body weight with the standard body weight to be determined in accordance with the said conditioning data, such as "overweight", "underweight", "normal weight" or the like to display the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A table of desirable body weight, or normal body weight for each of various heights for male and female Japanese nationals has been announced by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare and the like, for example. Hence, any person can learn the normal body weight most likely to his own height. To that end, the person compares his own body weight measured with a body weight measuring apparatus with the standard body weight as determined by his own height, thereby to determine the relativity of his own body weight with the standard body weight for the purpose of controlling his own body weight.
In case where a body weight measuring apparatus is utilized for the above described purpose, i.e. for measuring a person's body weight for comparison of the same with the standard body weight, it is most preferred that such a body weight measuring apparatus is provided with a display means which is adapted to display selectively such a standard body weight to be determined by the height of a person to be measured.
A prior art apparatus of interest to the present invention comprises a body weight scale, wherein a graduated disc is mounted so as to be rotated as a function of the weight of a person thereon such that the body weight graduation formed on the graduated disc is pointed by a pointer formed on a transparent window, and wherein the height graduation is provided in place on the said graduated disc or on the transparent window along the circumferential direction of the graduated disc, while the top plate or the transparent window of the scale is provided with a height pointer for pointing a desired value of a height graduation so as to be rotatable through a manual operation and, in addition, the graduated disc is further provided with a region for indicating the range of a predetermined relativity of the measured weight with respect to the height pointed by the height pointer, such as "underweight", "normal weight", "overweight" and the like. According to this type of the body weight scale, when the body weight of a person is measured after the height pointer is in advance set to the height graduation corresponding to the person, the height pointer points to a region for indicating the relativity of the measured body weight with the standard body weight, with the result that it can be known whether his measured body weight is normal or not.
However, with the above described scale, it is extremely difficult to indicate the standard body weight with accuracy over a wide range of the body weight. More specifically, the relativity of the standard body weight with the height is not constant throughout various values of the height and hence the range of the standard body weight varies in accordance with the value of the height. Therefore, with the above described body weight scale, the value of the standard body weight becomes inaccurate, if the value of the measured body weight comes off a given range. In order to solve such shortcomings, the graduated disc may be provided with spiral indicating portions so that the range of the standard body weight is varied in accordance with the value of the height, wherein these indicating portions are preferably shown in different colors such that the green denotes the standard range, the red denotes the overweight range and the like. However, according to such an improved scale, the visible range of the graduated plate is so narrow that it is hardly legible. Even if such a problem had been solved by any other expedient, such a scale cannot provide a standard body weight to be determined in consideration of various conditions, such as sex, age, nationality and the like of a person to be measured as well as the above discussed condition of the height, inasmuch as such a scale can only provide a standard body weight as determined as a function of a single condition, i.e. the height. In addition, with the above described scale, determination of the relativity of the measured body weight with the standard body weight range is incomplete and inaccurate, inasmuch as such a standard body weight range as determined as a function of the height is merely indicated by a spiral region indicated by a specific color.